Thursday, 3 May 2007

Tyne versus Wear derby battle to commence early!

If running 900 miles in itself wasn't enough, I've now been challenged, by a young Mackem from work, to a race of mountainous proportions. Steven Moore, who proudly supports that team who play in red and white, reckons he can beat me over any 26.2 mile section of the Land's End to John O'Groats route. I told him today that my choice of route was the 26.2 mile course from Kincraig to Dalwhinnie. This section runs through the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland so there's plenty of hills where we can battle it out for local bragging rights!

Steven and I will be wearing our respective team's colours and he has agreed to ask his friends and family for sponsorship in aid of the hospice. It should turn out to be some battle indeed as Steven is 10 years younger and 5 stone lighter than me. Not to mention that fact that I will have run 160 miles over the previous 6 days. There's no room for excuses though! I'll be hoping to follow in the footsteps of O'Brien, Dabizas, Bellamy, Shearer, Emre, Chopra etc etc and get one over the local rivals.

Steven commented earlier today that "Derby games are never pretty and whoever wants to defend the pride of their club the most will probably be the eventual victor.". So the first Tyne v Wear derby will be 13th July this year (also my birthday!) Challenge accepted!

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I'm currently on a fundraising campaign to run 20,000 miles Around The World in aid of charities in the North East of England.

Whilst not pursuing a world record, the run is following two aspects of the Guinness World Record criteria used, not in running, but in cycling for “fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle”; To travel a minimum of 18,000 miles (28,968 km) and to travel through two approximate antipodal points (i.e. opposite points on the planet).

The purpose of using the criteria is to, at least, give credibility to the claim that I will “run around the world”.

The distance of my chosen route is 20,000 miles (32,189 km). The chosen antipodal points are La Coruña in Spain and Christchurch in New Zealand.

The run Around The World is split into 9 stages, some of which have been completed already: